Football’s First Defender

Liverpool, who are constantly winning on all fronts, may be the most important and difficult game in the tight schedule in December, and it may be the away game to Old Trafford for the double red meet with Manchester United.

Relying on the explosive performance of the league in the past two months, Liverpool came to third place in the Premier League, with 31 points, away from the top of the list. Chelsea, who took the lead in this round and won the game, is only 8 points behind.

On the other hand, ranked fourth, closely following Liverpool is Manchester United, which has also won five consecutive victories recently.

After Van Gaal brought in a large number of strong players in the summer, he suffered from injuries and didn't adapt to the Premier League. In the end, he still had to rely on the team's youth training system...

The same poor record at the beginning of the season has caused Van Gaal to be questioned, but now, with Van Gaal's training, Manchester United's five-game winning streak has also occupied a place in the semi-finals.

In this game, the "Double Red Club" of the two teams that have recently recovered at the same time has attracted the attention of many fans.

Everyone wants to see who can stop the opponent's recent excellent momentum, continue the recent excellent record, and continue to attack Manchester City and Chelsea ahead.

In the away game against Manchester United, Rodgers sent all the main players who have performed well recently to play.

The team continues to carry forward the defensive system of the frontcourt that has become more and more tacit recently, to create pressure on Manchester United's players, and hopes to catch the chance of Manchester United's mistakes, and strive for the whole body at Old Trafford. retreat.

For Manchester United, Van Gaal continued to adjust the lineup. This game sent a 3412 formation and placed Carrick in the position of the three central defenders...

Rooney continued to be used as a midfielder by Van Gaal, while Van Persie was paired with Manchester United youth Wilson Wilson on the front line.

The front midfielder is the Spaniard Mata coordinating the attack.

In terms of the entire center, Mata and Rooney are both offensive players. The one who is really responsible for the defense in the center may be the midfielder Fellaini alone.

However, formations are dead, but people are alive.

Manchester United's lineup has considerable independent variability in the game, and in the previous games, the exchange of players in various positions made it difficult for many teams to guard against.

Rooney's insertion, Mata's transfer of the ball, the two wing backs Ashley Young and Valencia's performance, and even Carrick's advancement in the backcourt have created a lot for Manchester United in the past few games. scoring chances.

There is no fixed offensive situation, but Manchester United can always rely on the individual performance of the players to create dangerous offensive opportunities.

However, at the beginning of this game, Liverpool's offensive cost Manchester United a lot of defense.

Under the sleet weather, the field was a little slippery, which gave the defensive players a greater test.

Just at the start of the game, Liverpool played exquisite cooperation on the left.

Sterling, who switched positions, received a through ball from Flanagan on the left and accelerated forward.

Manchester United's defense was instantly under tremendous defensive pressure.

Fellaini, who came over from the defense, directly slid to steal the ball, but Sterling's speed was too fast, and he kicked the ball forward, so that Fellaini's slid did not touch the football, but just Shovel Sterling to the ground.

The referee Atkinson directly blew the whistle quickly to stop the game. It was useless for the Liverpool players to exert too much pressure, so they directly took out the yellow card and showed it to Fellaini.

Nominally, Fellaini, Manchester United's only defensive midfielder, received a yellow card just 3 minutes into the game. This is definitely not good news for Manchester United's defense in the future.

Fellaini, whose defensive actions were restricted, of course did not dare to exert physical confrontation with all his strength in the following games. This also gave technical players such as Sterling and Coutinho more wanton in the midfield interspersed opportunities.

Especially Sterling, this game was quite active.

Sterling gave full play to his role as a free man in the frontcourt. During the game, he constantly interspersed from the left and right sides to the middle, seizing Manchester United's defensive space, and constantly launched attacks.

Sterling's recently enhanced small-scale passing ability has also begun to be fully demonstrated in the game.

Once the ball accelerated from the left, and after moving laterally to the front of the penalty area, Sterling sent a diagonal through ball before Manchester United's defense in the middle came up.

Sturridge understood it, and suddenly accelerated on the penalty area line, succeeded in anti-offside, and got the opportunity to hit the goal from a small angle in the penalty area.

Sturridge's adjustment time is very short, that is, he hit the goal with his left foot.

It's just that De Gea is still the father of Manchester United's defense.

Facing Sturridge's close-range shot, De Gea reacted brilliantly, fell to the ground and threw himself sideways, blocking the ball with a single palm.

A very threatening attack by Liverpool came back without success.

While Manchester United sits at home, naturally they will not hand over the initiative to Liverpool.

Manchester United's offense is also doing well.

Ashley Young on the wing and Valencia were very active in this game.

Especially Valencia, even though they are now playing the position of the right wing back, but on the offensive end, they often dare to use the technical moves of the previous right midfielder or even the right winger to launch a forced breakthrough on the wing.

In the face of Flanagan and Henderson, under the defense of the two front and back, Valencia did not choose to pass the ball, but directly played a one-man ball.

The football kicked forward through Flanagan's wicket, and Valencia himself got out from the "closed door" between Henderson and Flanagan.

And directly use his speed advantage, receive the football, and directly kill Liverpool's penalty area from the right.

Yang Feng had to make up the defense, and he must limit the angle of Valencia's direct attack.

Before Yang Feng's defense came, Valencia, who didn't have a big shooting angle, still didn't choose to be too "independent", but passed the ball horizontally, and passed the ball to the no-man's area near the penalty spot.

From outside the penalty area, Rooney, who followed up, ran to the position first, and kicked the ball and hit the goal!

Rooney, a world-class attacker with rich shooting experience, while ensuring the speed of the goal kick, also consciously chooses a shooting angle where no defender can interfere.

This ball, Mignolet, already felt that it was not good, and fell to the ground with all his strength, but the ball was not missed.

Yang Feng's defensive choice this time can also be called a divine response.

In the process of rushing forward to limit the angle of Valencia's goal, when Valencia chose to pass the ball, Yang Feng had already made an emergency stop, turned on the spot, and rushed to the empty area of ​​​​the penalty spot.

And after taking two steps, he jumped directly to the side and flew to intercept.

Before Rooney hit the goal, he chose an angle without defenders, but after finishing the shot, Yang Feng had already jumped up and stretched his legs from the other side, and the right leg he stretched out just happened to appear on Rooney's goal route, directly forming a blocked.

The ball hit Yang Feng's leg, and the second landing point was Emre Can, who was driven back to defend, directly completed the clearance.

You Manchester United have De Gea's father guarding the gate, and my Liverpool also has Yang Feng's father guarding the penalty area.

At the beginning of this double-red meeting, the defensive cores of the two teams have contributed quite wonderful defensive performances...